Top 5 Productivity Apps You Need to Download Now

Can you blame our fast-paced digital lifestyle for shorter attention spans? Younger generations born with gadgets as play things and the Internet as the go-to information resource are proof that technology is taking over.

If you’re part of this tech demographic, you might know that the average person loses concentration after eight seconds -- one second less than that of a goldfish (TIME)! There’s just so many interesting things that go around, and it gets harder to compete for attention. That includes the attention you need to allocate for working.

To save you the time and the trouble, we’ve rounded up the top five apps you can use to help you focus on your work, keep you organized, and increase your productivity.

Forest

Forest can help you stay focused by letting you plant a tree for every task you need to accomplish. The tree grows while you are working, and if you lose focus (as in leaving the app to do something else), the tree will die.

Keep the tree alive by keeping the app open as you finish your task. You can set a break time after each planting and get notified when the time is over. True to the app’s name, you can plant a whole forest if you have lined up many tasks.

30/30

Healthline named 30/30 as one of the best ADHD apps of 2015. This task manager’s simple design helps you focus on two things:

(1) What you’re supposed to be doing right now

(2) How much time you have left to finish it

Just like a Pomodoro, it adds a sense of urgency without the frills, which often causes distraction. The best thing about the app is how easy it is to add and rearrange tasks and set times. The alarm goes off as soon as the allotted time is up.

Productive

The name says it all -- organize your life with Productive, which helps you build a routine of positive, life-changing habits. Productive’s clean interface makes it easy for you to plan and stick to your schedule. It eliminates the stress from the many things going on in your day or week.

What sets this app apart is its streak feature, showing the days when all your tasks have been accomplished and the days when they weren’t. Maintaining a perfect streak keeps you motivated and inspired to get work done as perfectly as you did on previous days.

Productive functions like a report card showing progress in each of your tasks. What’s great about it is how hassle-free it is to integrate your entire lifestyle (not just work!) in the app. You can input your habits such as walking the dog or jogging. This offers a holistic approach to keeping yourself productive (and happy) from a daily, weekly, and monthly perspective. Now that’s progress.

Any.Do

Any.Do is not designed for a sequence of short-term tasks, but instead, functions as a task manager for your life, home, and work. For people who like to get extra organized, the app makes it possible to access your schedule cross-platform. The app allows you to manage a wide variety of tasks and sync them across mobile and desktop, so you don’t have to be so mobile phone-reliant.

While there’s complexity in inputting your life, work, and home to-do’s in a single app, Any.Do ensures less clutter and more productivity with the ultra light and breathable design. The interface makes it easier to sort categorization by date or task type.

Moreover, Any.Do is available in Premium and Business subscriptions so you get the most out of the app, especially if you’re collaborating with a team. The app has a chat feature, and lets you assign tasks and share and upload files.

Google Keep

For those who like stick-to-the-basics app, Google Keep helps you organize and note tasks, and notify you when these are due. The simplicity allows you to note short-term to-do’s and mark them as done.

Since it’s powered by Google, it’s automatically synced to your Gmail account and is integrated with Google Docs. It can be shared with coworkers or friends, and is available on mobile and desktop.

From the fun, to the simple, to the sophisticated users, there’s an app that can help you boost your productivity and work efficiency.